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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Andrew Newport

Giovanni van Bronckhorst casts Rangers reminder as living legends provide inspiration for Seville shot at glory

There's been no shortage of reminders for the Rangers squad just what’s at stake in Seville this week.

Everywhere they turn as they snake through the panel-lined corridors of Ibrox, there are images depicting the greatest night in Rangers’ 150 years of history.

And as they stride through those old passageways, they may even bump into the man who had the honour of leading the Light Blues out at the Nou Camp as Wille Waddell’s team claimed European Cup Winners’ Cup glory.

John Greig continues to be very much part of the furniture at Ibrox 50 years on from that famous win over Moscow Dynamo, always available with a word of wisdom for today’s team or maybe just a gentle put down for those young scamps getting too big for their boots.

But it’s those living links to the past which Gio van Bronckhorst reckons have ensured his modern-day side have a firm sense of what they stand to achieve if they can match those historic feats of 1972 on Wednesday night.

If they can, perhaps one day it might just be James Tavernier’s turn to bump into the class of 2072 and regale them with old tales of Europa League triumph and glory.

Gio van Bronckhorst (Tony Nicoletti Daily Record)

The Gers gaffer said: “John is telling that story about 1972 every day! No, it’s good to have. I love having John Greig around because he is a true legend.

“In my first years as a player here, we had a really good head of communications then! It was really nice to have him around.

“But I think it’s also very important for the players to hear those stories, of the influence and experience they had and what it meant to them. That’s very important because this club is all about history.

“I also told my players that we have two big finals and the final in Seville will give them a chance to be in the history books of this club.

“Then the stories they will tell in 10, 20 or 30 years will be the same stories that all the players from ’72 will tell to mine.”

Gio van Bronckhorst (Tony Nicoletti Daily Record)

To be fair to Van Bronckhorst, the Dutchman has some stories to tell himself. A Champions League winner with Barcelona in 2006, a World Cup finalist with Holland four years later.

The man knows what the big occasions are all about - and he’s learned a thing or two from the coaches who have guided him there.

“I was privileged to train under some really good coaches,” he said. The final I played with Barcelona in 2006, when we won the Champions League, we had Frank Rijkaard as coach.

“As a character and the way I work, I think I’m closest to his manners and the way he approaches games.

“I always had a good feeling with him because he used the strength of the team. He always made us feel like we were special and able to achieve great things. With him, I had a really good relationship.

“Louis van Gaal was another coach I had with the Dutch team. As a coach in general, he is one of the best. And Dick Advocaat was a coach I had with both Rangers and the Dutch team.

“You learn from every coach you have and I’m still learning. As a player, I was still learning at 34 or 35 and as a coach you never stop learning, improving yourself and getting new ideas.

“So it’s an ongoing process. I’m really enjoying it at the moment.”

For Rangers to make the most of their big opportunity in Spain, they will have to topple their third German opponent of this remarkable run.

But Van Bronckhorst has every faith his team can do to Eintracht Frankfurt what they have already done to Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig.

He said: “It’s a Bundesliga team and a very strong team, physically good, well organised and very fast in transitions. We also saw when we played against Leipzig.

“They have had great results, the results they had in Europe will also give them confidence - beating Barcelona and West Ham is a great achievement for them as well.

“But they have different players to the ones we played. The system might be the same but individually they have different strengths but we are watching all the games they have played so far and in the end we will make a plan to try to be victorious against Eintracht.

“Of course if you play against a really strong opponent - Dortmund at that time were favourites to win the Europa League - and you give a performance like that, it’s good for confidence and your belief in your strength as a team.

“We stayed really humble and respected the opponent and made sure we did everything we could to win against every team we played. That’s one of the strengths of this team I’m really happy with that.

“Frankfurt will be the same. We won’t change our approach. We won’t change anything in addressing all the tactics. The preparations will be the same as when we played before.

“We have one more game to play. If we win that game, we are the champions. That will be a dream for all of us.”

Frankfurt have splashed out almost £65million on players over the last three years. Rangers’s entire squad, however, has been put together at a cost of just £17m.

“It would be a huge achievement and it also the beauty of football because it doesn’t matter how much you spend or what your players are worth, in the end you have the chance to win against a team in 90 minutes,” added van Bronckhorst.

“You can play against a team with much bigger budgets and better players but we have won those games.

“I think it is a huge achievement for us and it shows that everything is possible in football once you work hard for it. You have to believe.”

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